Class of 2011 Civic Projects

Global Kid Connect: This team partnered with Marshall Direct Fund, a local non-profit that is building educational opportunities in Pakistan.   There has been recent research that recommends the best way to achieve global peace is to connect our youth in meaningful ways. Last year a team connected classrooms in the valley with those in Pakistan. It was amazing to see the kids take on conversations about their lives, communities, and leadership.  This year another team adopted this project, with the intent to make it sustainable.  They created a video to explain the program, and documented everything from how to establish the technical connections to a recommended curriculum.  Now this program can easily be adopted by other schools here in the US.

Houses for Higher Education:  Mike Regan has been working for 4 years to gain traction on his idea – to teach high school kids how to build a house – from securing loans to putting it on the market – and then use the proceeds of the sale as a college scholarship fund.  When an RFL team joined him this year, they had intended to build a house.  But instead they discovered the need to operationalize this endeavor.  Over the years, Mike has rallied and aligned multiple stakeholders to bring this project to fruition – the only missing link is a piece of property in which to build upon.  So instead of pounding nails, the team chose to document all the necessary components of the project and create a comprehensive guide that can be used to both implement the project and to secure other necessary stakeholders.  Mike is now hopeful that this project will take shape in the next year.

3/50 Project: Did you know that if citizens could shift their purchasing behavior by directing a total of $50 per month to locally run businesses instead of the internet or big boxes, that we could have a thriving community?  For every $100 spent in locally owned independent stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures.  If you spend that in a national chain, only $43 stays here.  Spend it online and nothing comes home. This is a national campaign, and an RFL team adopted this project and started a local campaign for the valley.  They created multiple marketing pieces and disbursed them to local restaurants, retailers, and businesses and appeared on a variety of local TV and radio shows.  It has been widely received and continues to gain momentum.  I’m hopeful that another team will pick this up next year and continue to build on its success.

Leadership Connect:  This was a project started by a team from last year’s class…it is a new program being offered by RFL to match community members with volunteer leadership opportunities within our local non-profit and government organizations.  It is a web based database that leverages key data to align volunteer skills, interests and passion where they are needed.  Last year’s team conducted the research with community stakeholders to validate the need, and developed the technical functionality to make it a reality.  Between the two program sessions, RFL raised the necessary $5,000 and developed the database.  This year’s team launched the service my meeting with community groups and generating the first 100 community member profiles and gaining support from municipalities – Pitkin County has already loaded their citizen committees onto the site.  We have a few technical bugs that we are working through, but will have a formal launch to the non-profit and government entities very soon.